The Editor’s Desk

By Jon Meacham | NEWSWEEK
From the magazine issue dated Oct 22, 2007

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  • Posted By: NHNative @ 11/06/2007 9:42:55 AM

    Comment: Your print redesign is terrible. Seriously. The font is hard to read, the articles seem jumbled and bunched together on some pages. Despite being a longtime subscriber, my wife and I dislike it so much that we have decided to switch to another newsmagazine. Your editor stated in his opening piece that no focus groups were used for the redesign, which we believe was a huge mistake as you would have found (we suspect) many other readers who feel the way we do and will not re-subscribe and instead try Time, US News, etc.

    In addition, the Belief Watch section never should have been added as a weekly piece (maybe monthly if anything) and the Interview section at the end of the magazine (Nikki?) is beyond shameful for a magazine like Newsweek. Go back and read the past year and you'll see how ridiculous the questions are. Even the people being interviewed have replied and inquired 'What kind of interview is this!?" If I wanted an article like this then I'd subscribe to People or one of those magazines. Many quality people are interviewed so why not make it count! Sorry to see you change.

  • Posted By: NHNative @ 11/06/2007 9:41:12 AM

    Comment: Your print redesign is terrible. Seriously. The font is hard to read, the articles seem jumbled and bunched together on some pages. Despite being a longtime subscriber, my wife and I dislike it so much that we have decided to switch to another newsmagazine. Your editor stated in his opening piece that no focus groups were used for the redesign, which we believe was a huge mistake as you would have found (we suspect) many other readers who feel the way we do and will not re-subscribe and instead try Time, US News, etc.

    In addition, the Belief Watch section never should have been added as a weekly piece (maybe monthly if anything) and the Interview section at the end of the magazine (Nikki?) is beyond shameful for a magazine like Newsweek. Go back and read the past year and you'll see how ridiculous the questions are. Even the people being interviewed have replied and inquired 'What kind of interview is this!?" If I wanted an article like this then I'd subscribe to People or one of those magazines. Many quality people are interviewed so why not make it count! Sorry to see you change.

  • Posted By: bradfregger @ 10/18/2007 12:11:14 PM

    Comment: Speaking of "conventional wisdom," that section often shows little. Case in point, "Note to '60 Minutes': CAll Anita." I wonder ... if the program had been on Anitia Hill, I'm sure they would have said, "Note to '60 Minutes': Call Thomas." About the same probabilty as a new ice age.

  • Posted By: bradfregger @ 10/18/2007 12:04:36 PM

    Comment: Stop publishing Fareed Zakaria, that's crazy talk! He is one of the most balanced commentators Newsweek has and no one else understands the world and our place in it better. There's no doubt he can be critical about certain aspects of our foreign policy, but his warnings need to be taken seriously. I believe he has our best interests in mind and will continue to read him and watch his weekly television program.

    • Posted By: Heatwave @ 10/18/2007 1:17:53 PM

      Comment: I second your comments. Fareed Zakaria is the kind of man the president should have listened to before he started the war. His column is the first thing I read in each issue of Newsweek.

      • Posted By: spartan1961 @ 10/18/2007 4:26:19 PM

        Comment: Another huge supporter of Fareed Zakaria here. His articles are among the best, most thought provoking, and content filled published anywhere. If anything should be dropped, it is the "conventional wisdom" wise guy. That is so "grade school."

  • Posted By: bradfregger @ 10/18/2007 11:58:58 AM

    Comment: I trust you realize that your magazine displays the most "conventional wisdom" when George Will does the The Last Word. This was especially true in the October the 22nd issue. This article should be required reading in every school in the US.

  • Posted By: jnakic @ 10/18/2007 12:34:35 AM

    Comment: My 9th grade daughter read the article "An Inconvenient Price" written by George F. Will. After finishing reading it, she asked me if that was a satire. She could not believe that someone may write article with such message. It is a shame to Newsweek to publish this kind of opinion, as such belong to era (as author listed) of Hitler, Stalin and Mao.

  • Posted By: 3308074884 @ 10/17/2007 2:09:32 PM

    Comment: Will you PLEASE stop publishing articles from Fareed Zakaria...I don't care WHO he is on your staff! This guy is Anti-American. If he thinks America is no longer "exceptional" let him go back to his own country. Something doesn't seem right when someone named "Fareed" is telling me what's wrong with MY President , MY economy, and how HIS advise will fix things (from his article several monts ago). If he's so all-knowing let him go back to his OWN country and clean up their mess! -Mark Hadinger

  • Posted By: Heatwave @ 10/17/2007 12:14:09 PM

    Comment: Maybe it's just me ... maybe I'm just an over-the-hill dinosaur ... maybe I'm plagued with unrealistic expectations ... but I keep looking for and hoping to find news in Newsweek. Instead, I find a lotta tinsel and glitz and superficial stories about superficial events and superficial people. The item that aggravates me the most is your "Newsmakers" page. The people you write about aren't newsmakers and your articles aren't news. I must have napped the day Nicki Gosten became a famous writer ... maybe that explains why I find Gosten's "interviews" to be perhaps the most vapid and brain-numbing articles ever published.

    As a retired Navy officer, I know the most wretched words ever spoken can sometimes be: "It's time for an agonizing reappraisal ...." But an agonizing reappraisal is exactly what Newsweek needs. Right now. Newsweek needs to determine whether it's going to be a true news publication or merely another rag simply reporting wavetops and seagulls rather than the true depth, depth, and forces of the tides of time.

    Thank goodness for the "Washington Post National Weekly Edition." That's the publication on which I rely for what I consider "real" news literature.

  • Posted By: mohsingondal @ 10/17/2007 8:04:21 AM

    Comment: http://www.indymedia.org/en/2007/10/893910.shtml

  • Posted By: coffeedog @ 10/17/2007 3:57:38 AM

    Comment: Sorry Jon, but the new magazine layout is terrible. It seems that Newsweek has been going through a slow death over the past few years. Issues devoted to one topic, multi-double issues and now the current issue that seems to have forgotten to include any news stories. The cover story is touching but not what I buy the magazine for, nor should it be the lead story (it's like the NY Times running the same story on page one of the news section above the fold.) Your magazine is called Newsweek, yet you waste pages on Paris Hilton; a look at the head of Blackwater instead of how the State Department is going to deal with all the private contractors; and you skip any in-depth reporting on the growing issue of Turkey, the Kurds and Congress. Like the old Wendy's ad I keep asking "Where's the Beef?" If I want soft features I'll buy People. After many years you have finally lost me, I called and CXD my subscription today. Let me know when you want to be a newsweekly again and I'll be happy to come back.

  • Posted By: coffeedog @ 10/17/2007 3:35:19 AM

    Comment: Sorry Jon, but the new magazine layout is terrible, and by the way where's the news? Over the past few years the format seems to have been becoming more soft feature than a weekly recap and digest of current events. The issue that arrived Monday is everything that is wrong with where you are going as a weekly news magazine. The cover story is touching but not what I need up front. It's like the NY Times putting the same story on page 1 above the fold. And Paris Hilton getting two pages, you must be crazy, or trying to mimic People Magazine. Bottom line, after many years you have finally lost me. I CXD the remainder of my subscription today. Call me when you want to become a news weekly again.

  • Posted By: Mela Balaguer @ 10/16/2007 11:37:41 PM

    Comment: I think it's pathetic that you used specifically a Paris Hilton
    picture to announce your website redesign... We buy Newsweek because
    we're tired of the nonsense of all those third class gossip
    publications... Don't insult out intelligence trying to lure us to
    your site with the opposite of what your brand stands for: bad move!!!
    I'll only visit your site once: to post this same comment... If I wanted Paris gossip I rather visit perezhilton.com SHAME ON YOU!

  • Posted By: Mela Balaguer @ 10/16/2007 11:34:01 PM

    Comment: I think it's pathetic that you used specifically a Paris Hilton picture to announce your website redesign... We buy Newsweek because we're tired of the nonsense of all those third class gossip publications... Don't insult out intelligence trying to lure us to your site with the opposit of what your brand stands for. bad move, I'll only visit your site once: to post this same comment... SHAME ON YOU!

  • Posted By: madmax @ 10/16/2007 10:42:58 PM

    Comment: The web site looks fine, but I don't like the new magazine layout at all. Sadly, it's as if you wanted to make it look like Time! I always liked Newsweek's look better than Time's and the old layout was far superior to the new one. Please reconsider. Remember "New Coke"? It IS possible to go back again.

  • Posted By: mohsingondal @ 10/16/2007 6:28:18 PM

    Comment: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=8bb9cb53-9fad-49ba-941d-0c9dff7d477e
    http://www.indymedia.org/en/2007/10/893910.shtml
    http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/09/365622.shtml
    http://quebec.indymedia.org/en/node/27967
    http://indymedia.us/en/2007/08/27010.shtml
    http://indymedia.us/en/2007/08/27011.shtml
    http://www.charchaa.com/blogtag/khalid_awan
    http://www.nysun.com/article/37251

  • Posted By: rudbeck@gmail.com @ 10/16/2007 2:05:34 PM

    Comment: Hate the new site. It's 'way to busy with animation and disorganized story headline boxes. Takes forever to load (and I'm on a high speed connection) and once loaded it continually bogs down as new animations and ads are loaded. I cannot find the Periscope section where I always started my read, and the CW section appears sloppy with no logic to the layout - items are repeated and there are some that are from weeks ago. Why did you change something that was working so well? I'll see you on the Time site.

    • Posted By: GeneGeiger @ 10/16/2007 4:36:51 PM

      Comment: Change is difficult for some people. TIME has a good site, but this is clearly an improvement for Newsweek.

      Anyone who works with information on the web understands that things are in constant flux as providers must try new things, some of which work well and some of which do not. I applaude the effort and the gains.

  • Posted By: spartan1961 @ 10/16/2007 12:53:13 PM

    Comment: oops -- sorry, I posted my comment regarding the Magazine to the wrong area.

  • Posted By: spartan1961 @ 10/16/2007 12:48:19 PM

    Comment: Ok, the personal stories are very touching, it is true, and Ok, this does tangentially touch upon our misguided policies in Iraq. But we are threatening military strikes against Iran, and Newsweek puts a love story on the cover? Shouldn't we all be yelling about military strikes "No, not again!" We need to have an open dialogue about who influences our foregn policy and how it gets formed. And if Newsweek had the nerve, it shoud run a cover story on "The Israel Lobby and U.S Foreign Policy." The wikipedia site has a great synopsis of what every American ought to know. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Israel_Lobby_and_U.S._Foreign_Policy Newsweek needs to address this front and center.

  • Posted By: The Lioness @ 10/16/2007 11:18:40 AM

    Comment: So, where, exactly is the "daily Conventional Wisdom"? I can't find it. Otherwise, love the new site.

  • Posted By: The Lioness @ 10/16/2007 11:17:59 AM

    Comment: So, where, exactly, is the "daily Conventional Wisdom?" I can't find it. Otherwise, I love the new site.

  • Posted By: GeneGeiger @ 10/16/2007 10:25:06 AM

    Comment: I have always been a Newsweek fan, but Meacham and team are doing a great job with this new web site to extend the magazine and make it more relevant to me on a more than once a week basis. I read about the redesign in the latest issue on a flight from Europe yesterday, and I made a note to check things out today. I am impressed with what I have seen at first glance.

  • Posted By: taino1 @ 10/15/2007 9:42:24 PM

    Comment: looks a lot better and easier to navigate.

  • Posted By: borntoraisehogs @ 10/15/2007 1:57:44 PM

    Comment: Great job Jon, re-creating the whole mag into a women's issues forum . Why don't you go home , light a bunch of candles , and treat yourself to a hot bath

 
 
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